Blind.Faith 2.0.50. Tomasz Tatum

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СКАЧАТЬ minivans and buena.Vistas to the nearest mall, virtual or not.

      It all started in the not-so-distant past with CNN and the AFL-CIO. And IBM and MTV. OSCE, HIV, UNESCO and NAFTA.

      People learned how to spell HTTP and RDA and MPG.

      Then there was a Poppy Generation.

      Reality TV quickly followed, proving that truth can be more disgusting than fiction.

      There were Mad Hatters and pot parties, party caucuses, royal weddings and divorces and pot luck caribou roasts peppered with petty Palinisms.

      A gazillion times each day, an informed but mostly clueless tweety population popped their messages around the globe: Where did you, um, kind of, you know, want to be today?

      Tupperware and Tea parties raged everywhere, reigning supreme around the worldmonde.Planet.

      Think Global Act Local, many of the ads proclaimed loudly.

      Half of the planet seemed to rise at once to the thrill and challenge of modern media-enhanced grass-roots democracy. Daily referendums exhorting the virtues of an active and empowered citizenry swamped the airwaves and networks, demanding instantaneous participation.

      “Got a gripe? Say HELL, NO! to something today to make your voice count!”

      It was Vancouver that led the charge into the future.time. It simply declared itself to be independent one fine day. Almost overnight, everything changed. Vancouver went west and soon found its roots and soul in the Far East. There were pot-bellied golden Buddhas smiling in every shop window on every street. Feng shui counselors eagerly purveyed their services on every corner.

      In response to the Middle Kingdom’s acquisition through incorporation, the remainder of British Columbia was quickly annexed by faraway Quebec. Eager to exploit their inherent recognition value, and the potential commercial worth as well, Canada’s red and white maple leaf flags and banners were brazenly declared to be Québécoise. An ecstatic citizenry bellowed: “Let Ontario eat quiche and design its own flag!”

      From that crystallizing moment onward, national downsizing was all the rage. The word was out now that states possessing a vision had to be small and lean and mean to be adequately responsive to the rapidly changing requirements of their ever more discriminating populaces.

      Following its race to independence not long thereafter, the proud denizens of Florida began stamping out tin license plates proclaiming their young nation to be the SeniorCitizenNation. Meanwhile, the proud enclave of West Palm Beach County resolved to celebrate its achievement of independence by ritualizing the recounting of its votes over and over again–and, observing a tradition anchored within their new constitution, hanging a handful of chads now and then in respectful acknowledgement of this important holiday. Bingo reigned supreme everywhere south of Tallahassee, not even stopping the proverbial ninety miles short of Havana. For the first time in recent history, the heirs of the Máximo Lider, who continued making a limited number of dignified public appearances despite the emblematic awkwardness of the dolly cart required to transport him to and from his appointments, had a valid reason to feel truly besieged.

      Nevada, never a slouch in the past.time, quickly countered with Keno. And a hostile takeover of Colorado.

      Silicon Valley–famous now for its vast breast implant industry as well as its microchips–declared a merger among equals with a number of nearby or adjoining maquiladoras and faraway Bangalore.

      The result was world-class bintis and boobs. It was absolutely citron!

      The remainder of California collectively declared itself to be the Litigation Nation. On the opposite side of the continent, the citizens of Manhattan, D.C. predictably took issue with such a preposterous claim and collectively sued.

      Queens followed Jamaica Bay’s lead and seceded. Scotland and Wales shut their borders to the English.

      Even further afield, the New Hanseatics began kicking ass–especially those of immigrants under suspicion of what could be construed to be negligent or malicious non-integration.

      Newly independent entities like Martinique, Catalonia, Aden and Corsica established diplomatic ties with a plethora of mini-states around the globe–and among themselves–to underscore their determination to prevail and succeed in the emerging new and improved worldmonde.Planet order.

      Mindanao and the Spratlys confederated with the Kuril Islands.

      The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation defiantly dissolved all ties to the traditionally geriatric leadership further north. Getting the reprisal entirely wrong, the greater Beijing-Xi’an collective metropolitan government inadvertently acknowledged Taipei’s claim to nationhood. Taiwan was finally free to seek an attractive partner to merge with.

      The greater Phoenix metropolitan area voted nearly unanimously to move northward.

      And last, but not least, New Orleans blew up a bridge, literally severing the last remaining link with Baton Rouge that had been painstakingly re-established post-Katrina. That night, even long before the smoke and the smell of gunpowder had cleared, da.Republic.O’Nawlins had declared itself to be independent and partied savagely for years.

      Soon after the dawn of the second Millennia then, new nations were emerging everywhere and by the dozens. As soon as they set out on their own, many of these proud entities were often quickly awash in oceans of murky indifference or heartfelt animosity toward any number of the other similar states or, indeed, sometimes even the entire rest of the worldmonde.Planet. To make matters more complicated, emotions such as envy and antipathy, or sometimes both, often contributed an additional and particularly worrisome element to the mix. Irrespective of where all these nations found themselves in the aftermath of this process, this novel development effectively and unambiguously heralded in the age in which the nominally orderly worldmonde.Planet that was still intact in the picturesque but long obsolete hardcopy schoolbooks of young Charles’ childhood evaporated once and for all.

      Of course, when viewed from a modern day standpoint, these anachronistic schoolbooks were delightful if for nothing else than their stubborn persistence in portraying both greater and lesser states and their motley collection of political borders in contrasting shades of pale blues, greens, yellows, magentas or oranges to highlight them. Visualized through the innocent eyes of many small schoolchildren eager to impart some kind of logic to each new discovery, though, this perhaps not only made sense from a pedagogic vantage point but also made geography and social studies much more bearable by giving these youngsters a valid reason to fuel their naïve speculations over what an editor’s choice of color utilized to depict a nation actually revealed about that particular country. Even well into his adulthood, Charles would later still occasionally recall Azerbaijan’s pale hue of post-Soviet yellow and reflect momentarily upon what significance, if indeed there was any, it might have possessed and whether any of the traits he associated with this color at the time might have been absorbed in the persona of Niklas Vladimir Bratislav in some insidious manner.

      This was many long years before Niklas’ marriage to Jacqueline. In fact, it was many long years prior to his arrival in what was then a still orderly America.

      “Was it all about canaries or daffodils or was it all about raincoats?”, children likely fantasized as they pored over the pages intently. Or maybe it was the brand of mellow yellow which the pacifist pipe-dreamers of Haight-Ashbury had propagated only a few generations ago?

      Did the people there piss a lot? Was it a telltale sign of paradise or cowardice or jaundice? СКАЧАТЬ